Everything about IAS Exam – Syllabus, Eligibility, Papers, Strategy

Every year Union Public Service Commission conducts Civil Services Exams across India. There are around 10 lakhs forms received by UPSC from aspirants of IAS Exam. Out of which on an average 60% appears in PT. This article will help you to understand all about IAS exam.

10 times of total vacancy is called for mains written test and 3 times of total vacancy is called for interview.

Eligibility Criteria to apply the Civil service Exam:

To apply for this examination, you should must eligible in certain criteria, as we know that eligibility is an entry point in any examination.

The candidate must be a citizen of India.

The candidate should have a degree from Central, State or Deemed University. Degree from Correspondence Education or distance education, the open university is also accepted.

The candidate age must be 21 years old and not must be greater than 32 years old. For Open category is restrict to 32 years, for OBC category is restrict to 35 years and for SC/ST it is restricted to 37 years old.

Number of attempts is limited, for Open category it is limited to 6 attempts, for OBC category it is limited to 9 attempts and for SC/ST candidate there is no limitation (Any number of attempts)

Selection Process

There are three stages of selection process –

Preliminary Test

Mains Written Exam

Interview

Number of vacancies are notified by UPSC which remains around 700-1000 for civil services. But only top 70-100 candidates are allotted Indian Administrative Service. Indian Police Service is second most opted choice among services, third is Indian Foreign Service, Fourth is Indian Revenue Services and then other civil services follows.

Preliminary Test

PT is conducted in the month of August for which form and notification released by the Union Public Service Commission, New Delhi in the minth of February.

PT exam has Two papers of 100 questions and 80 questions to be finished in two hours each.

These papers are named as

General Studies Paper I

General Studies Paper II

General Studies Paper II is a qualifying paper only with cut off score as 33%, the merit list is created solely based on score of GS Paper I.

Syllabus of IAS Exam Paper I (PT) – (200 marks)

Paper I is having Social Studies, Indian Economy, General Science, Current Affairs, Environment etc. The duration of exam remains two hours generally scheduled in the first half of the day (9 am – 11 am). Following is the syllabus provided by UPSC for this paper.

Current events of national and international importance.

History of India and Indian National Movement.

Indian and World Geography – Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World.

Marks of English and Language will not be counted so total marks for Written exam will be 1750 Marks Only

Interview/Personality Test – 275 marks

Candidate can give preference of the language in which they may like to be interviewed. UPSC will make arrangement for the translators.

Grand Total 2025 Marks

A candidate is allowed to use any one language from the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution or English as the medium of writing the examination.

How to start IAS preparation?

One this you will find common in all aspirants about IAS preparation that they start it with reading NCERT books. Any beginner can start his UPSC preparation with reading NCERT books. Soon after this aspirants need to go through one text book of each subject and keep revising as well as practising for answer writing. Along with it a newspaper preferably The Hindu should be read by IAS Aspirants.

ABOUT US

SAPIENS IAS is one of the prominent IAS Coaching institutes of India. Pradip Kumar Sarkar is its Director and mentor, he founded it in 2007. Pradip Kumar Sarkar has more than 10 years of teaching experience in the field of IAS coaching.